TaDa!

I seem to have been knitting these particular socks forever and am quite bored with them, I finally finished off the second toe just now and am pleased to be done. They are straightforward socks, following Lucy Neatby's pattern in Cool Socks Warm Feet, with a short row heel. The yarn is Opal sock wool in Sugar Almond Lilac
They are - how to put this - a little snug. But safe in the knowledge that the Opal yarn gives a bit in the wash, I am hopeful that the fit will be perfect.

Secret Knitting

My aim to create something yesterday was achieved in a couple of hours of "secret knitting". Daniela Johannsenova produces a podcast called SecretKnitting and having listened to a couple, I fancied giving it a go. Daniela talks her listeners through a project, and by following her directions, I knitted this week's project: a flower. I should add that I had no idea what the end result ought to look like - Daniela doesn't post a photograph of the project until a week or so after the programme - that's the "Secret Knitting" bit.

I was quite pleased with the result - though I did need three or four false starts before I got to grips with the terminology! Daniela also suggested pressing each petal (she calls them leaves) but I chose not to as I thought the curly nature of the knitting made for a more lively end result.Yarn used is a viscose-linen mix, "Filati di Gianni Versace", which has a nice crunchy texture, a bit of a shine and was an absolute pig to knit. Thank goodness I was not working on a larger project! I bought the ball as an oddment some time ago and will now put it with my embroidery yarns and not think of knitting with it again.

Early morning in Gloucestershire

Getting up to make tea at 7am this morning, I noticed a lovely sky. Inspired by Margaret's great photographs of where she lives, I stepped outside with my camera (Brrrr! dressed only in my dressing gown, so strong was my motivation to record the moment) and the result can be seen above. By the time I'd drunk my tea and looked again, it was light and the sky was clear blue. We're in for another lovely, clear winter's day!

Chilly, but warming up

Typical that today, when I'd planned some creativity of my own, our heating has broken and we are sitting, well wrapped up and concentrating on staying warm. The engineer has just been and fixed it, although everything is still only lukewarm and we are wondering if it's really fixed...





I wore my curlywurly scarf for the first time yesterday, to a tutor workshop I was teaching. Whilst looking for something to use to demonstrate the potential of the docucam I pulled my scarf into the picture, resulting in a collective "you must tell us how you did that". These were not craft tutors, either!

Fortunately I had the book with the pattern inside with me and I noticed several people making note of it later.

Of course, this illustrates that I don't practise what I preach. I always tell tutors and demonstrators to wear subtle, unremarkable clothing, with no distracting jewellery or features to take the concentration of their students away from the task in hand. (Yes, I have sat in a presentation, wondering if that button will hold fast for the whole event, or will it pop at an inopportune moment!) There was I, yesterday, wearing a scarf which had clearly piqued the curiosity of some of the audience, and which would certainly had me working out how to do it if I'd been on the other side of the fence, so to speak.

Out for the evening

Last night, Mark and I went to Birmingham Symphony Hall to hear the CBSO. Their conductor for the evening was Gustavo Dudamel, a wonderful young Venezuelan whose spirited performance left the audience (and the orchestra, it seemed) enchanted. Only when reading the programme did we note his age - 24.

Later on, whilst we were enjoying a late supper in Bank, he arrived with his wife and various members of what looked like the orchestra management team, to sit at the next table to us. Now, dressed casually in jeans and a sweatshirt, he looked every inch the youngster that he is.

What magic white tie and tails does for a chap!